Simon Cowell is taking time off from his America’s Got Talent duties to undergo surgery.

The series judge and creator, 66, will be missing a couple of weeks of filming the NBC series as he gets a routine procedure related to his back, PEOPLE can confirm. TMZ was the first to share the news. A spokesperson for Cowell told Entertainment Weekly that the surgery is “routine and he will be back in a few weeks.”

It has not yet been confirmed who will fill in for Cowell during his absence, however, guest judges are expected to do so during the brief absence.

Cowell currently serves as a judge alongside Howie Mandel, Sofía Vergara and Mel B on AGT, which he created and serves as an executive producer on.

Cowell has been candid about his health in recent years. He broke his back in August 2020 after falling off an electric bike in Malibu and missed part of season 15 of AGT after the injury. He told PEOPLE months later that he was feeling “much better.” At the time, Cowell broke his back in three places and had to undergo a five-hour surgery.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, it wasn’t that bad actually breaking your back,” he said in February 2021. “I mean it wasn’t great for 3-4 weeks but after that you get through it. I had to do so much exercise now. I actually feel better than I did before the accident.”

Detailing the recovery process, Cowell said he was “embarrassed about coming home looking about 100 [years old] because I couldn’t walk, and I have these metal rods in my back and these screws.”

“I said, ‘Lauren, I just don’t know how to explain it to [Eric],’” he said of fiancée Lauren Silverman and their son Eric, now 12. “She obviously said something to him because he came in … and I was lying in bed and he said, ‘Daddy, you’re like Iron Man,’ and I thought that was the sweetest thing and it meant a lot.”

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Cowell later told OK! in 2022 that he was “lucky to survive” and had initially “kept a lot back” about his injury. “It was a lot worse than people thought. I had a lot of long-term nerve damage as well,” he said, seemingly referring to another incident where he broke his arm falling off a bike in London. “Then, a year later, I fell off [another] bike—and that set me back again.”

AGT returned for its 21st season premiere in June, with all four judges back and Terry Crews returning as host.

America’s Got Talent airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.